By Ngozi Onyeakusi—National Agency for Food and Drug Administration And Control(NAFDAC) has once again warned Nigerians on the dangerous effects of bleaching to the skin in particular and the whole body at large.

Acting Director General of NAFDAC, Monica Eimunjeze sounded the warning at media sensitization workshop on dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls held in Lagos.

She regretted the proliferation of skin bleaching creams and products in the country that has assumed alarming proportion to the detriment of the majority of the unsuspecting Nigerians.

She urged the media to educate Nigerians by providing them with the right information for them to make the right decisions about safeguarding their health. As way of stepping up awareness campaign against the skin bleaching pandemic.

She noted that most of the bleaching creams in the market were not registered by the agency, adding that they could be harmful to the body.

Eimunjeze disclosed that most of these bleaching creams had also gone through the regulatory process on the list of license items that are available in the record of the agency.
“There are those who are clandestinely in the market in which the agency is yet to effect the regulatory control, and Nigerians must be careful about those creams.

We see dangers inherent in using those creams products that are not in our regulatory process, so we are collaborating with health journalists to help us increase awareness of the products that have not gone through the regulatory process on the impact these could have on their health”.
“When you use a product that has chemicals that could affect the body in many ways or systemically cause a reaction on the skin and could affect the organs”.
“There are many consequences such as kidney failure, and liver damage from an accumulation of toxic chemicals within the system, so we want people to be aware of possibilities and try to modify their behaviour”. Although, people have the right to make choices but you need to make informed choices that will guide you and not the one that will hurt you”.

Eimunjeze stated that a lot of creams are produced that many don’t know the formulation knowledge in which the creams were made, adding that such creams are toxic to the body.
She vowed that the agency would not allow that to continue to happen, saying that NAFDAC has clear knowledge of the formulation of those under the agency’s regulation.
Eimunjeze also maintained that there was a need for reasonable Nigerians, particularly social scientists, to examine and look at the reasons some men go for white or fair women.
“This notion comes along with the way people perceive themselves to make them more receivable or acceptable in the society”.
She stated that the examination was necessary in order to make those bleachers re-orientate themselves to the realities of life.
She disclosed that the bleaching problem was not peculiar to Nigeria alone, but a global issue that needed to be discussed.
She condemned the idea of bleaching totally, adding that there are creams that are approved and formulated with specific the colour one has and that this is more acceptable than bleaching the body.
The DG also talked about organic products which are perceived as natural, saying that not all organic products are good for the body if it is not under regulation.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Director of Public Affairs, Abubakar Jimoh
welcomed the media, commended them for their effort even as he urged to do more to ensure total eradication of the skin bleaching .

He noted that negative effects of bleaching could not be overemphasised even as he called on the media to assist the agency in the fight
insisting that no other one could do it better than the media.